Some friends of ours recently borrowed our truck to tow a boat to their vacation destination. In return, they left us their Pontiac Montana minivan to drive for the week. Mary ended up using the minivan mostly, which turned out to be our downfall. At week’s end, she returned to driving our big 3/4 ton Dodge van and was astounded at how big it seemed and how bad the visibility was. That set the ball in motion.
This noon, Mary and I met first with the bank and then with the local Chrysler dealer…
…and in with the new (to us). It’s a 2000 Chrysler Town & Country LXi with 76,000 miles on a 3.8 l V-6. All leather interior with heated seats, rear heat and air, dual front climate control, etc, etc, etc. Mary is in love!
Yeah, all american roads are obviously built to be able to take the full weight of a jet airliner, in case they need to be used as a runway in an emergency . Otherwise all those hollywood films would have to use airports to crash, like normal people…
Your city and main roads must be big enough for delivery trucks? Even the big SUVs aren’t wider than full size delivery trucks.
But it is really annoying when a more than full size SUV parks in a parking stall that is too small for it. And a helpful hint to you SUV owners, there is no SUV that is small enough to justify trying to squeeze into a compact parking spot.
Actually, there is some truth to that. American interstates are constructed with built-in landing strips every so often, maybe as often as every eight miles, in order to land an aircraft in the event of a national disturbance.
As for “huge” cars, yeah, they’re trending toward bigger again. When the gas crisis hit in the 70’s, car makers immediately responded with production of Matchbox-sized cars that gobbled gas at the rate of an ounce every few years. Now we’re getting back to the good ol’ 2-ton hunks of steel cruising the neighborhoods. Personally, I love BIG vehicles, firstly because I don’t fit well in a sardine can. Secondly, we need the bulk and power of my truck to tow our travel trailer and the 7-passenger seating of a van to transport boys to out-of-town soccer several times a week.
JC, parking is one of the main reasons to obliterate Vanna White (van of white) from our vehicle inventory. Mary wants to be able to park at the grocery store like a normal mom.
Bruce
Edit: Speaking of inventory, here’s ours now:
2002 Chevy Avalanche
2000 Chrysler Town & Country
1995 Dodge B250 Vanna White (for now)
1988 Jeep Wrangler Sahara
1989 Jayco 2450 travel trailer
2001 Wells Cargo utility trailer
Several hundred Matchbox and Hot Wheels and other tidbits dating back to 1967.
One cat
One dog
One apple tree in the back yard
We have an old Shell station nearby that still has that lettered on their wall. My family often likes to joke that we’re out motoring. It’s an expression as quaint as $0.25/gallon gasoline.
We just need to accomodate our Hummers and Suburbans… and Explorers… and Hemi’s… then complain about gas prices, even when we have it cheaper than, um, the rest of the world.
(Sorry, I’m prejudiced against all North American car companies… excluding T-Rex (is that technically a car?))
. Otherwise all those hollywood films would have to use airports to crash, like normal people…